Research, Scholarship and Creative Achievement at UTSA

Focus on Unmanned Underwater Vessels

Studying the topography of polar undersea ice and
programming drone-like vehicles to better navigate
and communicate under water are just samples of the
research projects planned as part of a new program
designed to attract more students who will pursue higher education
and careers in the specialized field of naval engineering.

UTSA is one of 15 universities belonging to the Naval
Engineering Education Center Consortium organized in 2010.
NEEC is first and foremost an educational program intended
to address the shortage of engineers trained to work with
the U.S. Navy, says Brent Nowak, associate professor of mechanical
engineering and principal investigator for NEEC at
UTSA. “There is a great need, and there will be for decades
to come. They have a broad requirement for all types of engineers
and scientists. Every single engineering discipline you
can think of is required to operate one of those vessels.”

The consortium will provide the university with $1.6 million
over six years to fund its work in the program, dependent
on its receipt of $50 million in funding from the Naval Sea
Systems Command. NAVSEA engineers, builds and maintains
the Navy’s ships, submarines and combat systems. “What we are
getting funded to do by the Navy is to build programs, courses,
multi-engineering teams, project-based learning,” Nowak says

NEEC is led by the University of Michigan, one of the few
universities in the nation with a naval architecture and marine
engineering department. Other participating institutions include
MIT, Penn State and Virginia Tech. Faculty at the participating
universities will take on a range of research projects,
from alternative energy sources to advanced ship design, and
students’ learning will be amplified under the NEEC umbrella,
explains David Akopian, associate professor in the department
of electrical and computer engineering and co-investigator for
UTSA’s NEEC program. “They indirectly will be helping with the
research, but the primary goal is for them to learn,” Akopian says.

The Wolf Pack

At UTSA, the focus will be on various aspects of unmanned vessels,
including navigation, communication and vehicle autonomy.
“The Navy wants [submarine and robot vehicles] to be more
autonomous. They want to see them working together,” says
Nowak, whose own research aims to develop artificial intelligence
to compensate for lossy, or noisy communication.

Enter the Wolf Pack. That’s what Nowak and Akopian have
nicknamed one of their research projects, a collection of autonomous
underwater vehicles (AUVs), or “wolves.” Water
prevents many forms of communication and forces the development
of alternative methods. “They have to change and move
around,” Nowak says, likening the AUVs to an efficient pack
of wolves. “How do you keep everybody working together
even though they are far apart? How do you make a decision?
Is there one AUV in charge of the wolf pack or are they collectively
working together and making a decision together?”

Akopian is researching software-defined instrumentation for
AUVs, a more universal and easily upgraded navigation system.
Nowak’s polar undersea ice project aims to use landmarks on
the underside of the ice to create a navigation system for AUVs.
Another research area uses AUVs to map coastal regions, which
change frequently due to tides and weather. “They may want
to have a bunch of Marines come in and land somewhere,”
Nowak says. “Well, they need to understand the terrain. It
depends on whether it rained that day or the week before, are
there any mudslides, et cetera. How does that change things?”

Nowak notes that AUVs, and NEEC as a whole, benefit
more than just the military. “This has direct application
to studying our environment: oil spills, to see
what’s happening after hurricanes—you can use this to
study water quality. This has multiuse technology.”

While UTSA stands to gain much from its participation
in NEEC, it also brings a lot to the table, Akopian and Nowak
point out. “There is untapped student
talent here,” Akopian says. Nowak notes
the lack of barriers at UTSA to moving
ahead on projects and programs. “We
are a young university, we are eager,
extremely bright, and we collaborate.”

Naval Engineering Offers Great Variety

Naval engineering is a rich field with a
wide range of research areas, says Steven
Ceccio, director of NEEC and professor in
the departments of mechanical engineering
and naval architecture and marine
engineering at the University of Michigan.
“When we think about naval engineering,
maybe someone’s first mental image is
someone putting together a ship hull, but
it’s system integration, weapons systems
and propulsion systems, and energy distribution.”
The program aims to identify and
train students who are already enrolled in
engineering programs and might be interested
in—but possibly unfamiliar with—
the field of naval engineering, Ceccio says.

The 2010-2011 academic year was
spent planning, according to Akopian.
With the annual funding of projects
expected early this fall, students interested
in NEEC will be able to take classes that
reference the program this spring (2012).

The low supply of trained engineers
affects more than just the Navy. “It is a
broad problem that all of the Department
of Defense branches are having,” Nowak
says, explaining that the tech fields have
attracted the attention of students in recent
decades. “A lot of the young engineers, myself
included, never considered working for
the Navy.” But the Navy boasts top-notch
facilities which allow researchers to do
exciting work. “They have extensive testing
facilities and computational capabilities,”
Nowak says. “They are tackling very interesting
and very complex problems. When
I was graduating with my bachelor’s degree,
I didn’t even know this was an option.”

Students involved with the NEEC
program are also eligible for scholarships,
internships and other opportunities.
Nowak says the program may provide
chances for students to spend a summer
at another NEEC university, where they
will benefit from experiencing a different
university culture, energizing them for
their return to campus. Faculty also will be
able to do research at partner universities.
This past summer, two graduate research
assistants in Nowak’s lab were accepted
into the Navy Research Enterprise Intern
Program at the Naval Undersea Warfare
Center in Newport, Rhode Island.
Graduate student Trey Fawcett says his
assignment to program the navigation
of an unmanned underwater vehicle
while adjusting for ocean currents was
completely new to him. “It’s been a real
eye-opener in terms of working for the
Navy on real research projects that aren’t
canned.” Such exchanges and collaboration
are just one example of the strengths
of NEEC’s network of universities.

“From a research perspective, the problems
are very difficult,” Nowak says. “No
university has all the elements to service
the Navy’s needs.” Having a network of
universities plugged in to various aspects
of naval engineering will foster connections
among students that will carry on
throughout their professional lives, Ceccio
says. “By having a large concentration
of activity, we can form a community to
allow students to see how they are going
to fit into a larger community across the
country.” Simply being a part of NEEC
is exciting, Akopian adds. “I think this is
an outstanding opportunity. As a kind of
Navy hub university, that is valuable in
itself,” he says, adding that students stand
to enjoy better job prospects as the college’s
Navy-related infrastructure grows.
Nowak hopes participating in NEEC
will pay off in the way of more research
opportunities. “I want to grow the Navy
type of research we do here at UTSA.”

The NEEC program will address three
of the five elements of the university’s
strategic plan—energy, sustainability and
security, says College of Engineering Dean
C. Mauli Agrawal, adding that the grant
itself “covers the whole gamut of education
and research for us in one grant.”
“We’re really happy to be part of this Tier
One level team, and we look forward to
doing great things,” he notes. That collaboration
will not only benefit UTSA as
it seeks to attain Tier One status itself but
will also mean a richer and more robust research
process for complex research issues.

“The problems that we’ve identified
in these areas are not going to be solved
overnight,” he says, explaining that giving
a front-row seat to the next generation
of scientists will better prepare them to
tackle challenges in the future, benefiting
the students and society as a whole.

BRENT NOWAK
Associate professor, Department of Mechanical EngineeringBrent Nowak’s research interests include robotics and intelligent devices, with emphasis
on the design and field deployment of multi-energy domain systems (mechatronics) that
employ adaptive behaviors. These systems include medical devices, autonomous underwater
vehicles and collaborative serial robot arms in manufacturing.Nowak received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a master’s degree of science from the Illinois Institute of
Technology and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from The University of Texas at Austin.

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